With our clash with Edmonton looming and the short boundary there having such a pervasive influence over a batting team’s total and ultimately the result I thought it would be good to see how a professional goes about ‘bowling defensively’ and tying batsmen down to limit the run rate.
The following is an extract from an interview with Jeremy Snape of Leicestershire & England, who is something of a Twenty20 expert:
There is a huge difference between the shorter form of the game and even one-day cricket. The more attacking the game the more important the chemistry between what the batsman is looking to do and what the bowler is attempting.
In four-day cricket your best bet might be to keep it really defensive - bowling the same line and length ball over and over again until eventually the batsman loses his wicket through frustration. My best delivery in four-day cricket may pitch off-stump and hit middle.
If you did that in Twenty20 you would get absolutely pounded out of the ground. My best delivery is the opposite of what the batsman is expecting. From a mental point of view I am always trying to predict what the batsman is looking to do.
If he is trying to play a big shot out of the ground then I can afford something away from my best delivery.
It is more about strategy and stopping what he wants to do rather than technique - although your skills of control are important.
As a spinner you are generally coming on in the middle overs - so you are pretty aware where guys have been strong are if they are looking at ones and twos or all out for boundaries.
Some players might favour the cross-batted approach or go for slog-sweeps, while others might aim to hit you back over your head - that affects the way you are going to bowl.
If you can limit the scoring in Twenty20 you are likely to get wickets.
When you build up dot balls you can see a player's brain working overtime and that is often when they play bad, or higher-risk, shots.
I try to assess the situation but every ball is different and variety is the key.
This "moon-ball" that I bowl is a bit like Russian roulette - if it goes wrong at 40mph it can look pretty stupid because you can get hit out of the park.
But when you get it right it creates so much doubt in a batsman's mind that it can mess up their other shots as well. When they did connect it was in more predictable areas, which means you can set a field to it.
Even things like varying your run-up as a bowler are really important - a batsman sets his hitting tempo against the rhythm of your run-up.
If that rhythm changes then it disturbs the batsman so I try and mix in a one or two-pace run-up rather than the usual eight or nine paces.
And then there is regularly altering the field.
If all the variables like flight, length, line and the field placings change regularly then a batsman has to be right on their game.
When they are also having to run quick singles and are out of breath then they struggle to take in all of the information and make the correct decisions.
The more efficient we can make our thinking under pressure the more successful we will be.
Generally the players that have their mental game sorted are the ones that progress to the highest level in Twenty20.